The news of his death at age 48 on Feb. 11, left his family, friends and millions of fans worldwide heartbroken
When James Van Der Beek was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August 2023, his first thought wasn’t about how he was going to tackle it; he was just worried about how it would affect his wife, Kimberly, 43, and their six children: daughters Olivia, 15, Annabel, 12, Emilia, 9, and Gwendolyn, 7, and sons Joshua, 13, and Jeremiah, 4.
“It was tricky telling the kids,” he told PEOPLE in 2024. “They were scared. They’d had a friend with a rare brain tumor who was three months from leaving this earth. I had to explain that many people who had what I have survived it.” He added, “But that is a lot of little hearts to look after.”
Those six young hearts, along with those of his wife, countless friends and millions of fans worldwide, were broken on Feb. 11 when Kimberly announced that her husband of 15 years had died at 48 years old.
“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” Kimberly posted on his Instagram page. “He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother and friend.”
After the news of his death, fans and costars alike shared heartfelt tributes to Van Der Beek, who first shot to fame at age 20 on the hit coming-of-age drama Dawson’s Creek before going on to star in a string of films and TV shows.
Covers of Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait,” the theme song from Dawson’s Creek, flooded the Internet. “I mourn this loss with a heart holding the reality of his absence and deep gratitude for his imprint on it,” wrote Dawson’s costar Katie Holmes, who called Van Der Beek’s integrity “the journey of a hero.”
His Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 castmate Krysten Ritter described him as a “beautiful human inside and out. Smart, funny, empathetic, kind, talented and just pure magic.” Countless posts echoed that sentiment, celebrating Van Der Beek’s generosity, humor, spirituality and devotion to his family.
“The way you showed up for [Kimberly] and your children . . . steady, strong, devoted . . . was a blessing to witness,” wrote his close friend Stacy Keibler, who called him “an incredible husband” and “extraordinary dad.”
Growing up in Connecticut alongside his two younger siblings, Jared and Juliana, Van Der Beek loved theater as a teen and hoped for a career on Broadway. During high school and college (at Drew University) he auditioned for film and TV shows, landing roles in episodes of Clarissa Explains It All and As the World Turns, as well as in the 1995 movie Angus. Being cast as introspective small-town teen Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek changed his world overnight when it premiered on the WB in 1998. Suddenly the unknown actor couldn’t go anywhere without throngs of screaming fans following.
Van Der Beek admitted he struggled with the loss of his anonymity. “I remember being so broken up by it, because I loved being a fly on the wall or being able to have random conversations with people,” he later recalled. Eventually he leaned into it. “Now I realize that if someone comes up to me, I get to have a connection with them, and my celebrity actually brings us together in that moment,” he said.
When the show ended in 2003, Van Der Beek faced a career lull that he attributed to both needing a break and being pigeonholed as a one-hit teen idol. But a 2012 stint opposite Ritter in Don’t Trust the B—-, where he played a comedic, self-absorbed version of himself (he was on a quest to become PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive), reminded the world that he was not only a great actor but also had a fantastic sense of humor—and zero ego.
A 2019 stint on Dancing with the Stars endeared Van Der Beek to the public yet again. “Your kindness, patience, and empathy is unmatched,” his pro partner Emma Slater wrote in tribute. The actor’s cancer diagnosis came right as Van Der Beek’s career was taking off again, after the pandemic, a writer’s strike and his mother’s death.
Following appearances on The Masked Singer and in several movies, he’d signed on to star on the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series Elle. “I had not anticipated that all of my best-laid plans were about to get uprooted,” he said of the cancer.
It was a harder blow that he wasn’t able to protect his wife and kids from the ordeal.
“I wanted to be Superman, superdad,” he told Today. Van Der Beek, who separated from his first wife, actress Heather McComb, in April 2009, met Kimberly that same year at a spiritual retreat in Tel Aviv, moments after telling a friend that he was “ready to meet my soulmate.”
After Kimberly interrupted his revelatory conversation with his pal, he told PEOPLE in 2024, “She was right there.”
They weathered five painful miscarriages during their marriage and welcomed each new pregnancy with open arms. (“The one thing we really sucked at was not getting pregnant,” he joked.) Fatherhood, it turned out, was Van Der Beek’s true calling. “I like to take care of everyone and be all things to everybody,” he said.
When he received his diagnosis and realized he needed to ask his loved ones for help, Van Der Beek was in awe of just how people showed up for him. “It was a beautiful experience,” he said. He was also grateful for Kimberly’s strength and the way she managed their life. “There’s no way I get through this without her,” he said. “She is extraordinary.”
Those same friends, along with plenty of strangers, are now helping to ensure Van Der Beek’s family is taken care of in his absence, both financially and emotionally. “We are here for you always,” Holmes wrote to Kimberly.
Despite his omnipresence in the late ’90s, the star never saw many residuals from Dawson’s Creek and spent much of his own money on his treatments, which included both traditional and alternative therapies. Still, with help from friends, Van Der Beek managed to secure a down payment on the ranch where the family was living, and a GoFundMe set up by a friend surpassed $2 million in just two days after his death, with donations pouring in from fans and A-listers like Steven Spielberg and Zoe Saldaña.
In his final days, Van Der Beek was surrounded by his family at his busy and laughter-filled home. The bucolic setting in Texas, where they’d lived since 2020, coupled with the diagnosis, led Van Der Beek to lean into his spiritual side.
“I’ve always been someone who was seeking a deeper truth, always convinced there’s deeper meaning behind what we can see with our five senses,” he said.
Friend and actor Mehcad Brooks wrote that one of the greatest honors of his life was to not only be his friend, but to be there before his passing: “He handled the transition from flesh and blood, earth and bone to air and spirit, energy and soul like a true King,” he wrote.
Kiebler, who posted a photo of Van Der Beek taking in one of his last big Texan sunsets he loved to watch from his back patio, said, “We talked about how this world can feel upside down…and how maybe heaven needs your spirit now to help steady us down here. And just as the sun slipped away, a shooting star crossed the sky…as if to remind us that none of this is random.”
“What I’ve come to recognize through this process is that one’s relationship with God is the most deeply personal thing you can experience,” Van Der Beek told PEOPLE in 2024. “For me, it’s been a process of discovery and of experiencing the wonders of creation through this imperfect vessel. We’re all here doing our soul’s work.”
He added, “It’s also okay to not know [what’s next.] Maybe that’s the point of it all, to look at setbacks as a necessary part of the narrative.”
In his final days, Van Der Beek, leaned fully into the unknown “with grace,” said wife Kimberly.
Van Der Beek told PEOPLE that his cancer journey had been “a process of discovery and of experiencing the wonders of creation.” Reflecting, he added, “Maybe that’s the point of it all, to look at setbacks as a necessary part of the narrative. I mean, the hero’s journey is never a straight line toward ascendance.”
